All posts tagged: happiness

Nicole Bokat talks about her gorgeously written THE HAPPINESS THIEF, motherhood & careers, the happiness movement, thriving vs surviving, grief, being an empty-nester, how writing fiction is a privilege, more

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By Leslie Lindsay  Edgy, smart, and propulsive blend of literary thriller meets family dysfunction. ~WRITERS INTERVIEWING WRITERS|ALWAYS WITH A BOOK~ Spotlight: Motherhood & Mental Illness A masterful tale of family dysfunction, enmeshment, interconnected twists, the infallible effect of memory and emotion, lies, and so much more in Nicole Bokat’s THE HAPPINESS THIEF (SWP, May 18 2021). Natalie Greene is a 41-year old recently divorced woman raising a 15-year old daughter. Even now, she still believes she caused the car crash that led to her mother’s death when she was thirteen. But did she? Haunted by this, her dissolving marriage (and the fact that her ex has so easily moved on), Natalie is trying to make ends meet while being a freelance food photographer when strange emails, the death of her stepfather, and a large FedEx package appears and then disappears, catapulting her back to those earlier days. But there’s more: a recent trip to the Cayman Islands where her stepsister, happiness guru, Isabel’s, conference was held, an eerie similarity to the car crash that happened to Natalie’s mother nearly 30 years prior. Could the two …

Heather Harpham on her exquisite literary memoir, about love & medicine & parenting, HAPPINESS

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By Leslie Lindsay  Powerful, frank, and uplifting medical memoir deeply infused with love, longing, and motherhood. Plus, she talks about her favorite literary memoirs, making time for creativity, and so much more in this luminous interview.  I absolutely loved HAPPINESS, which touched on every single emotion with deftness and bravery. I simply couldn’t get enough–from the charming courtship between Heather and Brain, two personalities of polar opposites (she’s a fun-loving California girl living in NYC; he’s an intellectual homebody writer), to Heather’s unexpected pregnancy, the birth, and the medical mystery that enshrouds the baby’s young life. There’s reconciliation, how they’ll help this baby girl, and HAPPINESS was recently chosen by Reese Witherspoon as… Hello Sunshine’s April 2018 book pick! HAPPINESS encompasses a subtle, brave retelling of Brian and Heather’s unconventional relationship progression, how they come together and it’s all told in such a fluid, graceful way that will have you frantically turning the pages. Harpham does a beautiful job of describing the NICU, her experiences with medical professionals, her passion for parenting, and her reticence toward adult relationships. HAPPINESS absolutely thrums …

The Teacher is Talking: The Happiness Assignment

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By Leslie Lindsay I have been doing a little up-dating of my home decor lately.  And I have fallen in love with these signs/art work called ‘Primitives by Kathy.’http://www.primitivesbykathy.com/.  I love the sayings, I love what they mean and how they make me feel–laughter, complete agreement, thoughtfulness…you name it, you can find a sign to represent a feeling. So, when I came across this one, I had to purchase it.  Something about it struck a cord with me.  Maybe it’s the fact that I have young kids, maybe it’s the fact that kids today don’t always know what happiness it about–or maybe adults have sort of forgotten that teaching happiness is just as important as teaching, say compound words and indenting paragraphs.  Regardless, I bought the sign/artwork and have hung it appropriately on a wall with photos and artwork from my children. Here’s a challenge:  Ask your kids what makes them happy.  Do it tonight at the dinner table.  Is it something tangible?  Something that can be taken away, or is their identification of something that gives …